A place for a tired old woman to try to figure things out so that the world makes a bit of sense.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

I Am Just Saying ...

It troubles me that I am smarter than most of our national leaders. Oh, don't get me wrong: I have a very healthy ego. It's just that I have always assumed that the people we elect to represent us, people like Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Steny Hoyer, understand and can address the issues facing the nation better than I can. I clearly have misunderestimated my good sense and misoverestimated that of the Democratic leadership.

Take, for example, the angst among Democratic leaders over the soon to expire tax cuts for the wealthy. None are willing to go forward and let them expire while retaining tax breaks for the middle and lower classes, the people who work for a living (when there are jobs) and who vote. Their fear is that if the 2% wealthiest Americans have to pay their fair share, those people will not only not vote for Democrats, they won't invest in America, thereby providing jobs.

Look, you ignorant yahoos, those people are never going to vote for you. They also are not going to invest in this country when they can invest in countries whose labor forces are willing to work in deplorable conditions for subsistence wages. Haven't any of you paid attention the past 20 years?

The wealthiest who still have a conscience are more than willing to let you in on that secret; people like Garrett Gruener are trying to educate you, if you're interested.

And you'd better be interested. The election is only about a month away.

There's a whole lot of Americans who are ready for some real leadership on the issue, and they aren't actually calling it class warfare, but they're implying it. I'm not just talking about the dirty fucking hippies the White House is having such a good time punching either. People in Minnesota, for example, have gotten a clue, and they're running with it.

DFL governor candidate Mark Dayton's proposal to reduce the state's deficit by taxing the wealthy has wide support among likely voters this fall -- far ahead of the two other candidates' budget plans, according to a Star Tribune Minnesota Poll.

Faced with a nearly $6 billion state budget gap, more than 60 percent of Minnesotans favor Dayton's plan to raise taxes on top earners. A plan that would reduce services and keep income taxes flat, favored by GOP candidate Tom Emmer, drew the support of 42 percent. The same percentage supported Independence Party candidate Tom Horner's proposal to broaden the sales tax as a means of closing the gap. ...

The results of the poll indicate that independents are leaning toward Dayton's plan to raise taxes on top earners.

"When you look where the independents are on these issues, they're closer to the Democrats," Hugick said.

Sixty percent of independents favor raising the income tax, while 46 percent support expanding the sales tax and 41 percent endorsed a reduction in state services to avoid tax increases.

Eighty-two percent of Democrats favored raising the income tax and 63 percent of Republicans favored a reduction in state services.